Press Release

Islamabad, 27 December: The United States is one of Pakistan’s largest bilateral trading partner and is also one of the top sources of foreign direct investment to Pakistan, with $209 million in FY 2015. Chairman Privatisation Commission, Mr. Muhammad Zubair highlighted the positive contribution made by US companies and emphasized that the US technology and knowledge had especially played a key role in strengthening many areas of business in Pakistan.

Mr. Zubair spoke of the strong US-Pak business relations during a meeting held with the US Ambassador, Mr. David Hale at the Privatisation Commission in Islamabad. During the meeting, Mr. Zubair briefed the US Ambassador about the Privatisation program, sharing that the program was now at a critical stage as many of the key Public Sector Entities on the privatisation list were at their final stage of the due diligence and transaction. Mr. Zubair emphasized that the Privatisation Commission had undertaken a detailed review of the organizations to obtain the needed information to make an informed recommendation to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) on privatisation or restructuring of the entity.

Mr. Zubair said the recommendations were given with a clear objective of improving the entity’s operational efficiency and delivery of public services.
Ambassador Hale reinforced the importance of privatisation as a key economic reform to achieve economic growth in any country and reiterated his support for bringing more US investment to Pakistan.

Minister Zubair said that Pakistan had suffered from a negative perception among the international investor community who previously showed reluctance of investing in Pakistan but that he now saw a positive change and increasing interest among international investors. He also encouraged US companies to contribute to the CPEC to replicate the successful contributions made by the US investors so far.